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Jaguars Notebook: Blaine Gabbert's confidence keeps growing

Blaine Gabbert confirmed Wednesday what Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey and offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski have been saying about the second-year quarterback: He's getting more comfortable in a leadership role as time goes on.

"You have to," said Gabbert. "Coming in last year with no offseason, coming into minicamp, I really couldn't assert myself the way I wanted to. I was still learning. I was a fish out of water trying to swim upstream, learning the offense in a short amount of time. Being here throughout the offseason program, going through all these OTAs have been a blast."

Gabbert took a lot of criticism as a rookie for completing only 50.8 percent of his passes and having an NFL-low quarterback rating of 65.4. The Jaguars have worked extensively this spring on footwork and minimizing the length of his dropbacks.

"We just eliminated a lot of the deeper drops where I'm not punching it 10 yards and putting a lot of stress on the tackles," Gabbert said. "We're keeping everything in the pocket and just working from there."

Bratkowksi, along with quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, studied most of Gabbert's film from last season and likes the improvement he's seeing.

"We pinpointed a number of things fundamentally to get him to do better," said Bratkowski. "We had to address his drops and the way his footwork was. He's progressing in those areas and we're very pleased with the things he's done to elevate his game.

"We're just playing in our underwear right now, but if he can develop these things consistently, we feel it'll lead to better accuracy [with his passes]."

Branch calls contract 'a dream come true'

Rookie defensive end Andre Branch, the first of six draft picks to sign a contract, was happy to have the process reach a conclusion. He agreed to a four-year, $5.1 million deal.

"It's just a dream come true," said Branch. "It's one less thing I have to worry about. Now I can just focus on football."

Branch intercepted a Chad Henne pass in the early portion of the OTA, then promptly fumbled the ball back to the offense on the return.

Knighton: Club scuffle hurt contract chances

With the eye injury he suffered last month in a nightclub scuffle, Terrance Knighton admits it likely sabotaged his chances to sign a long-term contract extension with the Jaguars this offseason.

He has one year left on his rookie deal.

"I think about that all the time," Knighton said. "I just try to put that behind me and focus on the season, my work this offseason and my play this season to earn the contract, instead of think about, 'If I wasn't doing that, I could have had this.' It will come. I won't rush it." ... For the second consecutive day, CB Aaron Ross and FB Montell Owens were absent from OTAs for personal reasons. Several players, including DT Aaron Kampman, CB Rashean Mathis, CB Ashton Youboty, DT John Chick and Knighton, were working off to the side while rehabbing injuries. ... Today and Friday will be the last OTA sessions this spring, with a mandatory minicamp scheduled for June 12-14 before the final break before training camp.